Behind the Scenes of HetaOni: Nordic-Baltic Eight
by NYC the Penguin
Summary: Finland offers an in-universe, behind-the-scenes look at the making of HetaOni: Nordic-Baltic Eight, from its inspiration to its current progress at Chapter 20 onwards. Read the actual story on my profile first as this contains spoilers for first-time readers.


**Finland: Tervetuloa, readers! While you're waiting for Chapter Twenty-Two of HetaOni NB8, here's a little something we came up with to pass your time. Iceland and I documented our time working behind the scenes to write our story for all of you to read! I hope you appreciate the effort we made to tell you our story.**

* * *

Finland stared at his diary and frowned. He'd written the same thing again.

_I still can't get that mansion off my mind. Even though we escaped from it a week ago, I can't forget about all those horrible things I saw in there. I can't forget about the monster that tried to kill us all. I can't... let go. What if it's still alive, after all we've done to get rid of it? What if some unknowing person goes in again? I can't stop worrying. What should I do?_

"Why can't I forget...?" he muttered to himself, closing the small notebook. "It's like the memories are stuck in there... Should I talk to someone about it? Maybe the others have the same problem too..."

He flipped to a new page in the diary and wrote down a list.

"Let's see... No, I don't want to tell Denmark, he'll make it worse... Latvia's still traumatised from the experience, that poor guy... I can't talk to Sweden, he'll just try to change the subject again..."

Finally, only one name remained on the list. He grabbed his mobile phone, checked that it was still working (a habit he picked up inside the mansion- the phone would break down from time to time until a clock was broken) and made a call.

"...Hello?... Yes, that's me. I'd like to meet up with you tomorrow... It's important. Remember what happened a week ago?... Yes, I know you don't want to be reminded about it, but I need someone to talk to... Well, you were the only one I thought might be able to handle this better than the others... Okei! I'll see you at the usual place. You know, that restaurant we always hold our get-togethers in?... Yeah, that place. You can make it there yourself, right?... Ehe, I know. It's settled then. Don't be late!"

* * *

Iceland sat at a small round table in a corner of the seafood restaurant, moodily pushing his food around with a fork. His pet puffin squatted on the table, digging into a platter of raw Norwegian salmon.

"Don't be late, he said," the silver-haired nation muttered. "Where the hell is he, then? It's ten minutes past our agreed meeting time..."

"Islanti!" someone called from across the restaurant.

Iceland rolled his eyes. "Finally," he sighed, watching as Finland navigated through the grid of tables and aisles to get to his table, holding a shopping bag in one hand. "What took you so long?"

Finland plopped into the seat opposite him. "I'm sorry! Customs are so hard to get through sometimes. The new security guards always forget about our existence... Anyway, you remember why we are here, right?"

"To talk about the mansion," Iceland recalled. "I'm not that forgetful."

"I thought about it a little more last night." Finland rummaged around in his shopping bag and took out a fresh new notebook. "You see, I got this idea: we should write it all down into a story for others to read about. Get it out of our heads once and for all. Start from the very beginning and deal with our memories bit by bit. It might just be the best way to help us deal with it better!"

Iceland gazed at the notebook. "That sounds... fair enough. But we don't know everything! What the Baltics' group did before we came in, for example. We don't know what they were doing before we arrived."

Finland giggled. "We don't have to write this by ourselves. This is going to be a group effort. We're going to talk to everyone about their experiences and tell them it's for a book. They'll probably agree to help us out!"

"Probably," Iceland echoed the word. "Are you sure this is a good idea? I keep hearing from Lithuania about how Latvia still wakes up in the middle of the night screaming about someone dying. And don't even get me started on Norway. He spends entire days doing God-knows-what in the basement and it's freaking noisy-"

"It will be alright, Iceland." Finland smiled. "We're just trying to help. They'll understand that. So, will you write this story with me?"

Iceland finished off the last bite of his food.

"I'm in."

* * *

"You said you were keeping in contact with Lithuania, right?"

"Yeah... We're friends, after all."

"Could you arrange a meeting for us? We need to talk to him first."

"I'll try."

* * *

Lithuania's doorbell rang.

"Coming!" he called, hurrying to the door and opening it. "Oh, hello Finland! Iceland told me you were coming."

"Hei, Liettua!" Finland beamed. "Iceland and I just want to talk to you about something."

Iceland appeared behind the Finn. "It's about... you know, that thing I told you about in the email."

"That, huh..." Lithuania glanced sideways. "Of course. I can tell you everything I know. How long will you be doing this?"

Finland checked inside his diary. "I'm not sure... as long as it takes if we can write one chapter in a week, I guess."

Iceland glanced at a scrap of paper in his hand. "We're going to need as much information as we can for the first, uh... eight chapters. Neither one of us was there to watch you collect plate shards and eat danishes."

Lithuania fished out his phone. "I can call the other Baltics and Poland, if that might help. I don't know how cooperative Latvia might be, though. You understand. He went through a lot in that mansion."

"Oh, you don't have to!" Finland said hurriedly. "You don't need to go to that kind of trouble for us! Besides, we're writing mostly about what you're doing in the beginning."

"It's alright. I offered, anyway." Lithuania brought up his contacts list and scrolled through it. "Iceland told me what you're trying to do here. Actually, it makes a lot of sense to me. Telling others our story so we can deal with it better... It's a lot better if everyone can do that together, taip?"

"That's true," Finland nodded in agreement, "Okei! How quickly can you invite them over?"

"They all live next door to each other," Iceland pointed out. "You live only a gulf away from Estonia; that should have been obvious."

"Oh, right!" The Finn laughed awkwardly.

"Would you like to come inside first?" Lithuania suggested. "They won't take too long to get here but it's a little cold outside."

* * *

The two Nordics' first interview went fairly well. The Baltics were more than willing to share their own experiences with them and spent all morning helping the duo with their story. Other than the fact that Poland kept interrupting the Baltics when they were speaking and Latvia's nervous breakdown halfway through his recollection, they managed to collect enough data to begin writing their story. They thanked the Baltics and Poland for their help, then proceeded back to Finland's house to start working on their first transcript.

Both nations stared at the laptop on Finland's desk, an empty Word document displayed on the desktop.

"So... do you have a good title for this story?" Finland asked.

"It was your idea!" Iceland pointed out, "I thought you would have covered that already."

"I didn't," Finland admitted, "I was going to cross that bridge once we got there and here we are."

The younger nation facepalmed. "Great. We can't start this thing off without a title now, can we."

Finland frowned. "Ei... but I don't have any good ideas for titles."

"What about the other group?" Iceland inquired, "America and Japan are working on a game based off it, right? What's it called... _HetaOni_?"

"Yeah, they're naming it after Japan's anime, I think. They just took the last part and added in the Japanese word for 'demon' in place of it." Finland paused. "Why did you ask?"

Iceland shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe we could borrow their title or something. Our time in there was more or less the same, anyway."

"Can we do that?" Finland mused, "That's an idea but we should ask Japan first."

"Now? Let's hope he isn't sleeping then," Iceland remarked.

Finland checked the clock on his laptop desktop. "Japan's house is only six hours ahead of mine. He probably just had dinner." He brought out his phone and sent a quick text message and received a reply only a minute later. "He says yes, we can borrow his title, and he'd like to see the story when we're done with it too." He turned back to the laptop and renamed the document 'HetaOni'.

"I think it needs a more personal touch," Iceland suggested. "I mean, that is Japan's title for the game. We don't want people mixing the game and our story up."

Finland sighed. "You'll never be satisfied with what I do, will you? How about this?" He added 'Nordic-Baltic Eight' behind 'HetaOni'. "There! Is that personal enough?"

The Icelander shrugged indifferently.

"_HetaOni: Nordic-Baltic Eight_ it is, then," Finland decided.

And so began the two Nordics' long, long recollection-cum-suspense story, **HetaOni: Nordic-Baltic Eight.**

* * *

Iceland rearranged his notes before flicking through them again.

"Hey, have you made up your mind yet?" he asked Finland, who was reading a few first drafts of the first chapter, "I need to know which introduction you want me to put in so I can publish NB8!"

NB8 was nothing more than an abbreviation of their story name; calling it '_HetaOni: Nordic-Baltic Eight_' back and forth was rather tedious.

"Odota... I just want to see if starting with a little description or dialogue would sound better." Finland read off the first few words on the drafts. "_'There is a deserted house in the mountains, three hours on foot from the venue of the world summit.'_ Does it sound better if we start with that, or the dialogue?"

"Do I look like I want to start a suspense story with Lithuania stuttering? I'll take your description." Iceland drew the corresponding paper out of Finland's hands and continued writing. "We're on a schedule here. I would like to be able to update at least once a week."

* * *

Seven weeks and seven chapters with nothing but Baltics and Poland inside later, the duo began work on their eighth chapter.

Finland flipped through their interview notes and realised that they were almost done with the reflection the Baltics had given them when they had first started.

"Uh, Ice? We're almost done with the Baltic part," he noted. "We need to start interviewing people again."

Iceland halted his writing halfway through his half-hearted attempt at yet another battle scene. "What do you mean by that?"

"The chapter after this one is where we come in," Finland pointed out.

"Where we come in... _Oh my God_." Iceland buried his face in his hands. "We're going to interview the others, are we."

"Well, we don't have to if you want. For most of the first two chapters, the story is focused on everything you did," Finland recalled, "right up to the point where Lithuania finds your group in the kitchen."

"Everything I did..." Iceland groaned, still cradling his face, "Guð minn, Finland. Is the burnt shirt really that important?"

"If we want an excuse for Lithuania to burst out of nowhere and save you from Steve," Finland replied.

"You know what? I think I'd rather do the interviews first. Norway probably knows what the hell I'm doing going to your place every week already." Iceland decided to finish his battle scene, trying to push the thought out of his mind. "How did Estonia kill Steve again?"

Finland flicked through the Baltic interview notes. "Let's see... he threw a knife at its forehead."

"Thank you," Iceland simply said, refusing to speak any more.

* * *

"Why are we here again?" Denmark wondered.

Norway smacked him on the back of his head. "Weren't you listening?"

The Nordic Five, along with Sealand, were gathered in Finland's living room. Iceland tapped away on Finland's laptop in a far corner, listening to some loud music so that he didn't have to listen to the commotion barely two feet away from him while he finished writing Chapter Eight. Finland himself was seated on a plush IKEA couch (which Sweden particularly agreed with, since he had made it himself) with his now half-full notebook on his lap.

"Kiitos kun tulitte. I knew you could all make it!" Finland opened his notebook and grabbed a pencil (naturally, it was a wooden pencil from IKEA as well) from a nearby side table. "Iceland and I are writing a story based on... you know, that mansion."

"From what I understand, you have been working on it for the past seven weeks," Norway noted. "Your purpose is to help us deal with the experience better, right?"

"How did you-"

"I've been following _HetaOni NB8_ since the first day my lillebror published it."

"Oh. I see." Finland vaguely wondered how Norway could have found out about their story so quickly. "Well, we've already done this with the Baltics and they're taking it quite well so far. I was just wondering if you would let us ask a few questions so that we have accurate information to write into the next few chapters."

"I won't be much help, then." Denmark took a swig from the beer he had taken from the Finn's fridge earlier. "The two of us were locked in a cell with that sissy Poland, remember?"

He earned another stern smack from Norway.

"Yes, I remember," Finland laughed nervously. "Iceland can handle the first few parts, but I need to know what happened before you guys came along and found our cell. If I'm not wrong, there was a point in time where you split up with the Baltics."

Sweden nodded. "I was fightin' Steve with Icel'nd and Lithuania."

"Norway took me to the Piano room," Sealand added, "where I heroically fought Steve off with my bare hands!"

"You did not," Norway objected, "You simply fell asleep under the piano when you hid from it."

The micronation blushed. "I did _not_!"

"Liar," Iceland called from his corner. Apparently, he could hear the conversation regardless of his musical blockade.

"Okei, I get it." Finland wrote something down in his notebook. "You fought it off. Is there anything else you can tell me?"

* * *

The Nordic interview wasn't as clean and simple as the Baltics'. Sealand especially didn't like telling the truth about certain events if they affected his self esteem and Norway kept cutting off several details from his recollections. If Iceland hadn't been able to correct his brother before Finland could write down the wrong information, the story would have lost its purpose as a recollection.

Finally, they were able to begin work on Chapter Nine of _HetaOni NB8_.

* * *

"Could you stop looking at it over my shoulder?" Iceland complained, "That's annoying."

"I don't have anything to contribute, Iceland," Finland pointed out, "While you were busy exploring the mansion and fighting Steve, I was stuck in a cell. I need something to do while you're writing."

Iceland looked around the room. He grabbed his first draft for Chapter Nine and handed it to Finland. "Do some proofreading, then. I kind of wrote that in a hurry and didn't have time to check for errors. Also, Sweden is missing his accent."

Finland skimmed through the draft and, sure enough, there were multiple grammatical errors throughout the chapter and Sweden's dialogue was missing his signature thick accent.

"Sure! I'll fix this one as well as I can!" Finland agreed, picking up another IKEA pencil.

* * *

HetaOni: Nordic-Baltic Eight continued steadily, with Finland interviewing their friends regularly for information and Iceland diligently entering it all into each chapter he wrote. Once in a while, someone would drop by to check on their progress. Often, the visitor would be Lithuania, Sweden or Norway, come to review previous chapters or offer advice for future ones.

On other days, some other, less likely visitors turned up.

Chapter Fourteen was in production when Finland's doorbell rang.

"I'll get it!" Finland dropped Draft Two of chapter Fourteen and ran to the door. To his surprise, their visitor wasn't any one of their interviewees.

"Kon'nichiwa, Finrando," Japan greeted politely, a silver laptop in his arms. "I would rike to show you something. Are you and your friend free right now?"

Finland glanced at Iceland, who was trying to remember how his first battle with Steve went or, more accurately, procrastinating.

"Sure! Come in!" he answered, inviting the Asian nation inside.

* * *

"America-san and I have finished most of our game," Japan began, opening a file on his laptop. "How is your story coming arong?"

'We're making good progress," Finland replied. "Iceland's been doing most of the writing though, since I was locked in a cell for some time and can't contribute. Oh, is that your game? It looks really cool."

"You mean this?" Japan indicated the game file, "This is a beta of _HetaOni_. I heard Sweden-san is good at video games so I would rike him to try it out for me."

"Aha, of course he is. Sealand still hasn't beaten him at a single game yet," Finland remarked. "Can I see what you've done so far?"

"Of course," Japan agreed, starting a new game.

* * *

While Japan walked Finland through _HetaOni_, the latter began to ask the former about his own experience in the mansion. Japan began to explain the World Eight's version of the story, using the game as a reference. Iceland had mentioned before that both groups went through roughly the same thing, but Finland was surprised by how closely the World Eight's every move matched their own. They eventually ended up discussing the many differences they had discovered through the conversation.

For example, Japan was confused when Finland mentioned that Lithuania had found a stash of weapons in the Japanese room on the first floor. He reported that all he found there was a note about pianos, toilets and first-aid kits. Finland, on the other hand, wasn't aware that the toilet bowl in the first-floor lavatory was a store that sold riceballs and beer. He wondered if Lithuania had discovered it and simply chosen not to tell anyone about that little bit of oddness.

Finally, Japan left him with a copy of the _HetaOni_ beta before he left for home.

* * *

Chapter Twenty was under production.

"Finland, it's your time to write," Iceland declared, stepping away from the laptop.

The Nordic in question was playing through Japan's _HetaOni_ beta again. "What? My turn?" he asked absentmindedly.

Iceland sighed in exasperation. "Yes. You finally reappear in this chapter. I thought I might as well give you a chance to write the next chapter."

"How long ago was my last appearance in the story, anyway?" Finland inquired, taking his place in front of the laptop. He scrolled the document backwards to check. "Wow... ten chapters ago. This story has come a long way! Right, Iceland?"

Iceland plopped down on a nearby chair. "Yeah, I guess so. Wow... We've been writing it for so long. I hadn't noticed that."

Finland began to write Chapter Twenty. "We don't worry about the mansion any more, do we?" He chuckled softly. "NB8 has achieved its original purpose, then. We wanted to write it down so that we could deal with it better, remember?"

"As if I could forget that," Iceland scoffed. "Why are we still writing, then?"

"For the readers," Finland smiled as he wrote, "They want to know what happened. They want to know everything. Since we've been writing this for so long, we might as well finish what we started."

"Makes sense," Iceland agreed. "Let's do this."

As Finland taps on the keyboard, the story of _HetaOni: Nordic-Baltic Eight_ carries on...


End file.
